Persian Illuminationism as a Heuristic Methodology in Creative Practice-led Research
This article is published in The Geminis Journal, 13 (2), 2022. Download link:
Writen by: Hossein Najafi
Abstract
This article is structured into two parts.
The first considers the research paradigm that emanates from Persian Illuminationism (especially the works the Persian philosopher Suhrawardi). His illuminationist way of knowing, ‘knowledge by presence’, has enabled many artists to approach the inquiry through a relationship between intuition and praxis.
The second section of the article is concerned with methodology, and I explain how illuminationism is consolidated through a heuristic inquiry. I posit a journey that comprises seven stages of self-realisation drawn from The Conference of the Birds (a classical illuminationist Persian text by Attar of Nishapur). These stages correlate somewhat with Moustakas’ (1990) seven essential concepts of heuristic inquiry. However, I argue that where Moustakas’ concepts eventually focus on meeting the requirements of producing research outcomes, Attar’s illuminationist framework preserves the openness of inquiry and may facilitate ongoing discovery.).
Keywords: Illuminationism; Practice-led Research ; Creative Research; Heuristic Research; Suhrawardi.
Research paradigm
A paradigm is “a body of beliefs and values, laws and practices that govern a community of practitioners” (Carroll, 1997, p. 171). Paradigmatically, creative research may be understood as an artistic research (Klein, 2010) that employs practice-led inquiry. However, through the practices of an indigenous artist, like myself as a Persian art researcher, research’s orientation can be influenced by Persian literature, art and philosophy.
Artistic research
In 2010, Julian Klein discussed a research orientation he called Artistic Research. He proposed that if we consider art as a mode of perception, we can think of artistic research as the mode of a process. In such a paradigm, reflection on research occurs inside the artistic experience itself (Klein, 2010).
Most challenges, questions and problems in artistic inquiries are shaped through the creative endeavours of the practitioner who engages practical methods that emerge from internal experiences (Gray, 1996). Practice may engage a multitude of methods (Haseman, 2006) that are exercised in a process of intervention, creation and conversion that may either produce knowledge or heighten human experience (Scrivener, 2000). Barrett and Bolt (2007) suggest that it is through a process of elucidation and clarification that new knowledge emerges, that moves beyond artist’s solipsistic, reflective, practice-generated theory.
Practice-led research
I use the term practice-led research to describe an inquiry that is led through practice. In other words, the researcher employs practice as both an agent of questioning and discovery. Smith and Dean (2009) suggest that practice-led research contains two interrelated assumptions. First, the creative artwork is a form of research and can result in demonstrable results. Second, creative practice may lead to research insights and can be shaped into a research format.
In practice-led artistic research, Hamilton (2011) and Ings (2015) suggest a dynamic exists between theory and practice, such that while engaged in practice, as I shape work, I am shaped by unexpected questioning and discoveries. The research calls theory to itself and theory is questioned and shaped within one’s practice. I would argue that, as a consequence, theory merges with the self through an embodiment that invigorates and revitalises the inner voice. This is because practice-led, artistic research is “simultaneously generative and reflective” (Gray, 1996, p. 10). The relationship between what is interior and what is generated through practice, may result in elevating both the self (the artist) and the body of knowledge (Chen, 2018; Ings, 2018; Pouwhare, 2020).
Illuminationism
The golden age of Islam and the achievements in algebra, astronomy, medicine, geography and philosophy was profoundly influenced by both Aristotelian rationalism (Bertolacci, 2018) and Avicennan Peripateticism (Marcotte, 2019). During this period, a Persian philosopher, Suhrawardi, amalgamated a corpus of ancient pre-Aristotelian, Zoroastrian, Hermetic, Buddhistic and Mystic texts (Walbridge, 2001). By synthesizing them with Islamic literature he established a meta-paradigmatic (Nikfarid et al., 2018) philosophical-epistemological tradition called the Philosophy of Illumination (Hikmat al-Ishraq حکمت الاشراق). His work shaped a new way of conceiving intellectualisation and practice in the Iranian-Islamic world, and his thinking remains delicately manifested in much Iranian-Islamic art and architecture (Rahbarnia & Rouzbahani, 2014). Both Aminrazavi & Nasr (2013) and Ziai (1990) suggest that Suhrawardi’s legacy still permeates Iranian cultural and academic understanding..
Suhrawardi’s philosophy of Illumination uses a non-corporal allegorical ontology of light as an intellectual substrate. His thinking took diverse forms including symbolic and mystical narratives that considered the journey of a soul across the cosmos to a “state of deliverance and illumination” (Nasr, 1964, p. 59). The philosophy of Illumination considers practice as a mode of intellectual engagement (Ziai, 1990) and it places emphasis on intuition and ‘knowledge by presence’. It also positions imagination and innovation at the centre of its ontology (Marcotte, 2019).
Although Suhrawardi’s The Philosophy of Illumination (حکمت الاشراق) book is considered a seminal text on illuminationism, Dabbagh (2009) notes that his thinking permeated the work of many intellectuals, artists and poets of the period. Even Ibn Sina, the most prominent Aristotelian Peripatetic philosopher in the Islamic world (known as Avicenna in the West) wrote three treatises on illuminationism towards the end of his life (Aminrazavi & Nasr, 2013).
In considering the concept of illuminationism in this thesis, I have drawn on the thinking of two philosophers, Ibn Sina and Suhrawardi, and two poets, Rumi and Attar.
The Islamic Golden Age
The Islamic Golden Age lasted for five hundred years, from 8th century until it collapsed as a result of the Mongol invasion in the mid-13th century. Occurring at the same time as the Dark Ages in Europe, which resulted in the destruction or suppression of much of non-Christian recorded knowledge, the pluralistic cosmopolitan nature of the Islamic world may be viewed as a counterpoint.
During this time, Muslim scholars borrowed much knowledge from Greek and Hellenistic sources and they re-examined the material through vigorous critique and observation (Burlot, 1990). During this period The Canon was an encyclopaedia of medicine in five voluminous books, was written by Ibn Sina. This text remained the main medical authority and academic textbook in Europe for over 600 years up until 18th century (Nasr & De Santillana, 1968). In this period, Al-Kindi and al-Farabi also translated and reviewed a large corpus of Greek Aristotelian and Neoplatonist texts into Arabic and this knowledge provided fertile ground for intellectual growth among scholars, especially in the House of Wisdom.
Ibn Sina’s Peripatetic Philosophy
Among Ibn Sina’s works, two large encyclopaedias, The Canon on medical sciences and The Cure (a 22 volume work on logic, philosophy, psychology, physics and metaphysics), shaped the intellectual landscape of the Middle Ages and had a significant influence on the early Renaissance (Gutas, 2016).
Ibn Sina’s aim was to critically examine philosophical knowledge to which he had access and to re-construct a cohesive, unified philosophical body of work that considers how the rational self acquires (Gutas, 2016).
Avicenna not only is concerned with ‘knowing’ truth but also with knowing ‘knowing’ (the noesis). In the pursuit of this, he employs Aristotelian syllogistic reasoning and in The Cure, and he seeks to expound upon the ‘theory of everything’ to explain reality through a rational empirical lens in a consistent and interconnected manner (Gutas, 2016).
The Historical Roots of Illuminationism
Suhrawardi claims that his ultimate aim was to synthesise and reunite two paths of wisdom (the Greek and the Persian) that were nearly lost after the death of Aristotle and the collapse of Persian Empire following the invasion of Arab Muslims in Persia (Suhrawardi, 1186).
Marcotte (2019) suggests that the Persian wisdom he discusses is constituted of philosophical elements borrowed from Zoroastrianism, the ancient Persian worldview. In Gathas, the oldest Zoroastrian sacred scripture, the story of creation and the totality of the cosmos are represented as emanations of wisdom (Pourdavoud & Farahvashi, 1958). In the beginning, Ahura Mazda (which literally means Lord Wisdom; Kuiper, 1976) creates two minds: Spenta Mainyu (the sacred creative mind that is the realm of light); and Angra Mainyu (the angry, destructive mind that resides in the realm of darkness). The whole cosmos, including life and death, are different gradations of light emanating from the synthesis of these two polarities (Boyce, 1997).
This concept of a celestial intellect gradually travelled from Persia to Greece and the pre-Socratic philosopher, Anaxagoras (initially a citizen of Persian Empire) introduced the concept of a Nous, the cosmic mind that arranges all things in the cosmos in their proper order (Afnan, 1971). Later, Plato also shaped elements of his worldview like the ‘ideal city’ and his theory of cosmic souls, based on the notion of Nous (Menn, 1995). Following Plato, Ptolemy constructed his physical version of the cosmos based on the same idea (Panaino, 2010). Eventually Plotinus, a Hellenistic Greek philosopher who travelled in Persia and was influenced by Persian scholars, elevated the idea of Nous into an abstract state again (Adluri, 2014).
The notion of Nous was re-examined by Ibn Sina and became part of his philosophical system. His cosmology began with First Intellect (equivalent to Nous), and incrementally, through Ptolemian constellations, arrived at the Tenth Intellect or Demiurge where the celestial intellect meets the terrestrial realm (Gutas, 2016).
Because he was able to retrieve a large corpus of ancient texts, Suhrawardi became the first scholar to realise that the sources of Persian and Greek wisdom might be related (Suhrawardi, 1186).
Philosophy of Illumination: Knowing through Praxis
Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (1236–1311), one of the earliest commentators on Suhrawardi, suggests that illuminationism is the intuitive revelation of intellectual lights and their overflow into the self (Berenjkar, 2019). According to Aminrazavi and Nasr (2013, p. 130), “both metaphysically and historically, illuminationist (اشراقی) philosophy relates to a pre-discursive mode of thought that is intuitive (ذوقی) rather than discursive (بحثی) that which seeks to reach illumination through asceticism and purification.”
Historically, the arts and literature have become the meta-language of illumination and the vehicle for achieving knowledge. Ziai (1990, p. 216) maintains that this knowledge passes through “the experienced and the imagined”. He suggests that poetic language and the use of metaphors, allegory, symbolism and referring to myths and legends may function as ways of contemplating and internalising knowledge of things. This process also enables thinkers to reach beyond discrete philosophical discourse and reach out to a wider audience. This, he suggests, is why we see the elements of illuminationism in everyday culture like poetry, architecture, clothing patterns and traditions in Iran and other Middle Eastern nations (Ziai, 1990).
Suhrawardi (1186) at the beginning of his book says:
Although before the composition of this book I composed several treatises on Aristotelian philosophy, this book differs from them and has a method peculiar to itself. All of its material has not been assembled by thought and reasoning; rather, intellectual intuition, contemplation and ascetic practices have played a large role in it. Since our sayings have not come by means of rational demonstration but by inner vision and contemplation, they cannot be destroyed by the doubts and temptations of the sceptics. Whoever is a traveller on the road to Truth is my companion and aid on this path (translated by Nasr, 1964).
It is important to understand that in Philosophy of Illumination, Suhrawardi is not refusing reasoning and rationality even though he discusses on “the primacy of experience” and the priority of direct innate knowledge (Ziai, 1990). When it comes to acknowledging and explaining intuitively attained knowledge, he still proposes using rational reasoning and classical mechanisms of logic. The main difference for him is the initiation of the thought process. Ibn Sina and peripatetic traditions suggest beginning from discursive and empirical knowledge then employing intuition if needed, whereas illuminationism asks one to engage with intuition through praxis and then construct reasoning from this process. This is why many scholars consider illuminationism as an example of a synthesis of Platonian intuitionism and Aristotelian rationalism (Corbin, 1964; Marcotte, 2019; Nasr, 1964; Walbridge, 2001; Ziai, 1990). Contrary to the peripatetic philosophers, Suhrawardi believes in the principality of essence rather than existence. He also rejects the peripatetic notion that we are incapable of knowing the essence of things (Beheshti, 2016). He argues that the sole act of constructing the definition of a thing does not reveal its essence and we are basically simply converting one concept to another – what he calls a tautology (تبدیل الالفاظ). What Suhrawardi promotes is the idea of illuminationist vision (مشاهده اشراقی). Here, the researcher opens the inner eye through an act or a journey that begins with quest and demands practice and engagement. The object of study becomes luminous and excites a state of illumination and then becomes knowable to the researcher, this time in the realm of memory, experience and imagination (Ziai, 1990). In other words, according to Suhrawardi, vision is “seeing through praxis” (Ziai, 1990, p. 218). Henry Corbin (1964), the first translator of Suhrawardi into a Latin language, calls this realm mundus imaginalis.
Suhrawardi’s world of lights and illumination should not be read as Platonic theory of forms and ideas, even though he has borrowed some components from Plato. The difference with his thinking is the plasticity of his world of lights. Creators as artistic researchers in Suhrawardi’s philosophy attain illumination through rigorous practice and reach a state that he calls the State of Be (مقام کون), and by their luminosity they can shape celestial forms by themselves and bring these to the terrestrial domain where they turn into the works of art or abstracted concepts (Shafi & Bolkhari, 2012). Thus, for Suhrawardi, there is a dynamic dialogue between the realm of imagination, mundus imaginalis, and the domain of the earthly self. To Corbin, this world is imaginal not imaginary as it is shaped by images that own utter reality; this world is not of irreality but of “autonomous forms and images” which cannot be understood by rational mind and is conceivable only by “imaginative consciousness” (Corbin, 1966, p. 406). In studying Rumi’s narrative style, which belongs to the illuminative school of the same era, James Roy King (1989) notices similar attributes:
“The concept of a world of non-existence back of the world of similitudes is critical for any attempt to grasp Rumi's views about poetic inspiration and narrative technique. It suggests that he was responding to pressures and inspiration other than the logical and the lineal” (King, 1989, p. 281).
Research methodology:
illuminative heuristic inquiry
A research methodology explains the way an inquiry will be processed. Once the research paradigm is established, the nature of reality, knowledge and validation become elucidated by the researcher. Then by adopting a specific methodology, a theoretical framework of the study is moulded. Kawulich (2012, p. 1) maintains that “Methodology is where assumptions about the nature of reality and knowledge, values, theory and practice on a given topic come together.”
In this article I utilise heuristic inquiry as the core methodology of this research and look into it through the lens of Suhrawardi’s Persian illuminationism. In exercising this connection between Persian and Western methodological thinking, I draw upon the metaphors of another Persian illuminationist, the poet Attar of Nishapur, whose famous poem The Conference of the Birds describes the journey of the self through an allegorical narrative.
Heuristic inquiry
Heuristic inquiry can be defined as a form of discovery achieved and elevated through practical experience and questioning. Through the process of one’s practice, a researcher works without a predefined formula, using astute observation and questioning to incrementally explore and develop potentials within the work. Accordingly, the direction of the enquiry may change or be adjusted, and new questions may arise (Douglass & Moustakas, 1985; Ings, 2011; Kleining & Witt, 2000; Moustakas, 1990; Ventling, 2017).
Heuristic inquiry has a significant history in artistic, doctoral inquiry (Ings, 2005; Pouwhare, 2020; Steagall, 2019; Ventling, 2017) and a wide application in research across a range of other fields including mathematics (Gigerenzer et al., 2015), engineering (Rothlauf, 2011), nursing (Kenny, 2012), acculturation and identity reconstruction (Djuraskovic & Arthur, 2010), and politics and psychology (Petersen, 2015). The protean nature of heuristic of inquiry affords an adaptive framework because not only the process but also the questions and problems that arise from it, can be intuitively adjusted.
In a creative research, the researcher functions as critical insider (Duncan, 2004). This is because as a researcher, they surrounded by the practice and the context of the inquiry and as such they are central to its exploration (Griffiths, 2010) and embedded within every aspect of it (Mockler, 2011). Because of this embeddedness, and the nature of the creative research itself as a navigation of the currently unknown (Ings, 2015), they employ a heuristic methodology that characteristically employs both explicit and tacit knowledge and involves lived experiences, phenomenologically reincarnated reminiscences and internalized wisdom that can result in new approaches (Douglass & Moustakas, 1985).
In a heuristic inquiry, the researcher’s knowing in practice requires a concatenation of integrated re-adjustments and re-definitions (Scrivener, 2000). Moustakas (1990) suggests this is because heuristic research is concerned with interrelated and integrated elements, that constitute derived knowledge (as a form of creative discovery) that accompanies intuition and tacit knowledge. The research process he suggests begins within the practitioner in deep, internal dialogue with the self, therefore one cannot expect the predictability factors and casual relations that we encounter in empirical inquiries. Thus, Moustakas (2001) notes that such research “is illuminated through careful descriptions, illustrations, metaphors, poetry, dialogue, and other creative renderings rather than by measurements, ratings, or scores”.
Conclusion
The knowledge by presence can be so direct that the (re)searcher often needs to pause and look back in the journey to understand it. Sometimes the (re)searcher is so immersed that this reflective understanding becomes impossible, so an external critic is required to observe the process from an objective standpoint. The external critic (in illuminationist terminology) functions as a mirror that reflects the irradiated light of the (re)searcher back to themselves so they can recognise their own light. In a creative research, the (re)searcher calls upon help during the journey. Collaborators may be understood as essentially illuminating beings who intensify and catalyse the process of becoming illuminated. They ‘climb inside’ the subject of inquiry and illuminate dark corners of the pathway.
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